Ask Allie
What is “Ask Allie”?
Ask Allie is our fermenting-related advice column, where you can ask all your fermenting-related questions and get digestible answers! No question about fermenting is off limits!
To have your question answered in Ask Allie posts, please use the form on our website. If you prefer to be anonymous, just say so in the form and we’ll leave your name out when we answer it in the blog!
For troubleshooting active issues with a culture you’re working with, please write us at support@positivelyprobiotic.com - you’ll get your answer faster that way!
The page on activating my culture is down on the website. How do I activate my culture?
— Several people
Ah, the website. As you may have noticed, we have been hard at work redesigning and reorganizing the site! Unfortunately, we don’t always work during the hours you’re asleep (mostly we work while kids are in school and during bouts of insomnia), and so occasionally you’ll find that a link you want is broken. Please don’t fret - if a link isn’t working, it’ll probably be all new when you try again in an hour or so. We are hoping all the construction is done and dust is swept up within the next couple of weeks, and we appreciate your patience with it! If you can’t access a page for more than 5-6 hours, though, please shoot us an email at support@positivelyprobiotic.com. If what you’re looking for is down that long, we broke something while fixing something else and hadn’t noticed yet. Thank you for telling us!
To activate your culture, please select the activation page that’s relevant to your purchase.
My husband surprised me with your milk kefir grains: could I use soy milk or coconut milk? Wanting to go vegan, so should I purchase the water kefir and the vegan yogurt instead?
— Claudia
If you’re wanting to go vegan, you can definitely use plant-based milks with your kefir, though you have to do some extra work in order to make it happen. Sorry about that. You see, milk kefir grains (MKG) feed on lactose, which generally is only found in dairy products. Even though this is what they really want to eat, some people are successful in feeding their grains date paste indefinitely and without animal milk feeds. Other people are successful with date paste for a few batches and then find that their grains have become fussy.
If that’s what yours do, you’ll want to feed animal milk every few batches and then return to the vegan and date paste feed. Your husband can drink those batches, if your grains can’t handle indefinite date paste, yes? If they don’t, then you just keep on keepin’ on with your plant-based milk kefir and no animal milk feeds between them!
To make your vegan kefir, mix 1 teaspoon date paste into a quart of vegan milk, add grains, cover, and ferment per normal (average of 24 hours).
Regarding water kefir and vegan yogurt, my personal take is that you should try them alongside your milk kefir! Water kefir is a naturally vegan product, and it can feel wonderful to sip your homemade, fermented sodas over dinner or basically all the time. This has a totally different… essence, I think, than milk kefir, does - milk kefir really is more like a (frequently drinking texture) yogurt than a soda, whereas water kefir is closest to producing healthful sodas. Our coconut yogurt will also do right by you, though the production is a bit more complicated than with dairy yogurts. Our vegan yogurt has to be mixed (coconut water and coconut cream) to the thickness you’re looking for before you add the culture, because it won’t thicken further during fermentation. Nevertheless, it is an incredibly tasty alternative to milk kefir or other dairy cultures!
I ordered some cultures 6 months ago, but I didn't freeze it. Would I still be able to make yogurt from it?
— Allie
Oh, Allie. It must be an Allie thing, because I’ve totally done this - and not just once! My answer, unfortunately, is that we won’t know until you try. Sometimes they still work, and sometimes we don’t get so lucky. When you try (you should try!), use just a small amount of milk - like, a quarter to a half cup. That way, if it fails you will not have wasted a bunch of milk testing it. If it does work, be aware that your culture may smell and taste fermented and still look and feel exactly like unfermented milk. Give it a few more small batches to strengthen the culture if that happens, and you should be rockin’ and rollin’ thereafter!
Please let us know what happens so we can update everyone!
